Panthers reserve goalie Chris Driedger has ‘surreal’ game with shutout of Predators

MacKenzie Weegar was the first to get there.

Then Anton Stralman.

Eventually, every single Florida Panthers player skated over to goalie Chris Driedger, hugging him in appreciation of how well he performed on Saturday night in his first NHL start — a stunning 3-0 shutout win over the visiting Nashville Predators.

“I’m pretty speechless,” said Driedger, who made 27 saves. “It’s a surreal moment. I’m cloud-nining right now.

“I was really nervous hanging around the rink ([before the game]. But as soon as you get on the ice and get into your routine, that goes away. I just tried to turn [nervousness] into excitement and motivation.”

Driedger did a great job of that, handing Nashville its first shutout loss of the season.

“He was smooth. When I say smooth, I mean, no rebounds,” said Panthers coach Joel Quenneville, who rested his top goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky, to give Driedger this opportunity.

“I thought [Driedger] was great — composed, patient. He moved well, followed the puck [and] did a lot of good things.”

Driedger was so good that he overshadowed Stralman, the veteran defenseman who scored Florida’s first two goals.

Prior to Saturday, Stralman — who signed as a free agent in July — hadn’t scored since Dec. 29, 2018, when he was a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“You don’t [normally] budget him for a pair in the same game,” Quenneville said of Stralman, who has had multiple goals just three other times in 775 career contests, spread out over 13 years in the league.

Even so, this night belonged to Driedger, the 25-year-old Canadian (Winnipeg) who helped the Panthers snap their three-game losing streak.

Driedger was the Ottawa Senators’ third-round pick in 2012. Prior to Saturday, he had played in three NHL games, all in reserve. His last NHL game was more than three years ago, with the Senators, who released him after five seasons with the organization.

The Panthers signed him on July 3, 2018, and Driedger earned this opportunity because of his stellar statistics in the American Hockey League this season — a 2.09 goals-against average and an AHL-best .938 save percentage.

Those numbers did not look like a fluke on Saturday as Driedger was square to the puck, appearing poised and in proper position for each Nashville shot.

“He was unbelievable,” said Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, who had the game’s other goal. “He said he was nervous, but he didn’t look like it at all.”

Driedger said he had 15 friends/family members at BB&T Center to watch him make his first start, but he managed to block everything out and focus on the puck.

However, as the game went on, the possible shutout became harder and harder to ignore.

“I told myself, ‘All right Chris, don’t say the word [shutout]. Don’t think about it, and just play’,” Driedger said. “Finally, when we had the puck with 10 seconds left and I knew [the shutout] was coming — that moment was pretty special.”

THIS AND THAT

▪ Of the five most recent goalies inducted into the Hall of Fame, none of them matched Driedger’s feat, and only Dominik Hasek (one goal allowed in 1990 debut) came close. The others were Billy Smith (1979, five goals); Grant Fuhr (1981, three); Patrick Roy (1985, three); and Ed Belfour (1989, four).

▪ This was just the 37th time in NHL history that a goalie earned a shutout in his first career start, and it’s the first time that has happened to a Panthers player.

▪ The win marked a successful start to Florida’s nine-game homestand. Next up is the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday, and there’s no word yet on whether Bobrovsky or Driedger will be in Florida’s net.

▪ Weegar returned from an eight-game, upper-body-injury absence. He was a plus-two in 19:49 on the ice.

▪ The Panthers went 0-for-4 on the power play. Florida’s power play had been the hottest in the NHL up until the past four games. During this slump, the Panthers are just 1-for-18 with the man advantage.

▪ Florida killed off all four Nashville penalties, including a 5-on-3 Predators advantage that lasted 30 seconds.

▪ Panthers winger Evgenii Dadonov earned career assist No. 100.